


Two Years A Lifetime

by Salty_Boi



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Badass Pidge, Basically just graphic in general now that I think about it, Cannon Divergence, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Arena, Galra Keith, Graphic depictions of violence - Freeform, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I'm so Sory Pidge (kinda), Other, Out of character pidge, Pidge in the Arena, You have been warned., and i probably forgot some, graphic depictions of injuries, hurt/comfort in the end, traumatizing stuff happens, wow that's a lot of tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-03 23:43:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 18,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14007435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Salty_Boi/pseuds/Salty_Boi
Summary: After accidentally being left behind during a battle with the Galra, pidge finds herself in an increasingly bad situation- how will she be able to get out?





	1. Beginning of the End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which pidge is left behind, the green lion goes missing, and behind the scenes, dark forces set plans into motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my first fic, so any comments or suggestions are welcome!

The massive wormhole turned dark once Haggar's spell hit it, causing the circulating vortex to fade to dark violet and begin to shrink from instability. The lions sped up in an effort to make it inside the improvised getaway exit on time, Hunk first, then Keith, Lance, and Shiro made it inside the spinning vortex, but just barely. Pidge had green going as fast as she could, but Green was damaged and their efforts still weren't enough to make it before the compromised wormhole snapped out of existence, separating pidge from the rest of her team and silencing the previously screaming comms in her helmet. 

Pidge sat in green’s cockpit in utter shock for a second before a blast shook green and she snapped back to her senses and started dodging the next wave of attacks frantically. Pidge could feel green in her mind, telling her to get out, escape and go find the rest of the paladins wherever they had been transported to. The fleet of galran cruisers was approaching the green lion rapidly, and despite Pidge’s efforts, she could only shoot down and destroy so many ships before she was completely swamped. 

There was no opening, no way out no matter which way the green lion turned. A purple tractor beam enveloped green’s body, making both the lion and her paladin to share a sense of panicked dread. Pidge activated her bayard for what had to be the millionth time, initiating the plant cannon and spinning in a circle to destroy all of the ships in the near vicinity. The tractor beam didn’t falter in the slightest despite her efforts. The feeling of the green lion being pulled into the hull of the main Galra command ship was one of the most terrifying things pidge had ever experienced to date. Pidge could feel both her and green’s fear, the two mixing into one right before she blacked out. 

\----one hour----  
Shiro’s POV

Pidge hadn’t made it into the wormhole before it closed. All of the paladins had been yelling into the comms for her to hurry up, to get through the impromptu escape wormhole, but Haggar had corrupted it, making it unstable and forcing it to close. Shiro had thought Pidge had been the first one in, but now he realizes that she hadn’t made it at all.

They had somehow managed to get the lions inside the castle even with the turbulence provided by the corrupted wormhole, but the terrifying absence of the small tech whizz was made apparent immediately. Shiro was devastated, realizing that he had lost matt’s sister to the Galra. The one and only thing keeping him from leaving to retrieve her the moment he realized she wasn’t there was that there was no way to get out of the violent space-vacuum. 

The thought of Pidge being trapped with the Galrans for even only a few minutes was gut-wrenching, and Shiro would be lying if he said that he didn’t hurl the contents of his stomach twice once he was back in the castle of lions. He knew Pidge would fight until she literally dropped. She may have been small but was more than capable of fighting tooth and nail to the end and then some. The thought of her being put into the arena was near petrifying nonetheless, making memories of his own time with the Galrans resurface. 

Allura was trying desperately to find a way out of the vortex, but her efforts were met with little more than their situation getting worse. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Shiro knew that one of the paladins being captured was inevitable, they skirmished with the Galra regularly, but why did it have to be the youngest of the group? Why did it have to be matt’s sister? Even if pidge was more than capable of protecting herself and excellent at using awful situations to her advantage, this was one paladin against multiple galran fleets- alone. Even when the others told him it wasn’t his fault, Shiro fully blamed himself for pidge being left behind anyway. 

The guilt may as well have eaten him alive, leaving Shiro hoping against all odds that pidge would be able to get out and away from the Galra fleets that had been closing in. 

\------one week-----  
Pidge’s POV

Pidge woke up slowly, her entire body feeling like it had been torn apart and sewn back together again. All of her muscles screamed at her to just go back to sleep so that they could attempt to heal themselves while they could. She ignored their cries and attempted to move, taking in her surroundings slowly as her groggy mind caught up with her situation. 

The pit of unease in her stomach grew deeper by the moment. Thinking back despite the ache in her temples, the last thing she remembered was green and her being pulled into the command ship, petrifying fear, then black. Black like the room she was in now, which was probably only ten by eight, with a small cot in one corner, and a bucket in the opposite. Nausea may as well have punched Pidge in the face, knocking her back onto the floor from her position leaning against the wall as the green paladin tried desperately to not vomit. 

The pounding in her head grew worse with every passing second, and suddenly, the already meager purple lights embedded in the ceiling were far too bright, her heartbeat was too loud, and her body’s already painful aches were far too overwhelming to be natural. Pidge collapsed bonelessly in a pile of limbs in the corner, tears gathering in her eyes as the situation weighed heavily on her. ‘I’m stranded, on a galran ship, in who knows where in the universe, without the green lion. great.’ Pidge reached out to the green lion in her mind but was met with deafening silence on her side, making the entire situation that much more painful.

Forcing herself off the floor, Pidge began to scope out the room again, trying to find anything to help her escape. A loose panel, some sort of weapon, anything even mildly useful would be fine. Unbeknownst to Pidge, a team of elite druids watched the entire scene, already planning what to do with their newest specimen. It had been years since their first group of humans, so they were incredibly excited at the second opportunity to evaluate the rare species.


	2. The Science of Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which we get a snippet of Pidge in the arena, learning the know-how of the ring. Meanwhile, Allura learns some disturbing information.

\-----three months-----  
Pidge’s POV 

The animal pidge was fighting snarled at her, hunched over and dripping blood from the multiple gashes she had managed to land earlier in the fight. Surrounding the ring, The crowd was going ballistic over the action. they were always like that, pidge found, constantly hungry for violence. 

Pidge grimaced as she took a side step, narrowly dodging the animal’s attack and panting from the effort it took to drag the blade through it’s hide as it passed her. The beast reared bask and roared in pain, shying away from the small girl despite being over twice her size. The creature and pidge were both panting hard, exertion and adrenaline coursing through their bodies and forcing them into action once more. 

The animal lept at pidge, stretching it’s claws and letting out a feral hiss when she ducked under it, impaling it directly below its ribcage and ripping the sword down through its intestines- a move that before being forced into the arena- pidge would not have been able to pull off, lacking in muscle, as well as technique. 

After one final cry of pain, the creature let out a pathetic whimper before collapsing on the ground dead. Pidge Turned sharply, her face contorted with pain and sympathy, muttering apologies and fighting back tears as she limped her way to the guards so she could be dragged off to the infirmary. 

\------ five months-----  
Pidge’s POV

Pidge fought through the hoard of guards furiously, almost out of the wretched prison, almost successful with her fifth escape attempt. Almost to the escape pod hangar, almost free of the constant torture, almost on the way to finding both her families. Suddenly, there was a burning pain in the back of pidge’s leg, her right thigh erupting into searing pain, immediately immobilizing her. 

She gave up biting back her screams, feeling clawed hands grabbing her by the arms, she struggled like a wild animal, trying to slip through their claws, all the while yelling both earth and alien profanities like a madwoman. She adamantly refused to look at the damage on her leg. 

The first time she had attempted escape, she had made the mistake of looking at the wound that had been afflicted on her left forearm. It had been one of the biggest mistakes possible, and not one she was too keen on making again. 

Pidge had been in a cryopod for a week as it healed. The scar it had left was a dark dent running all the way from her elbow down to the inside of her wrist, the scar tissue darker than the surrounding flesh. Pidge’s voice cut out when her commanding officer grabbed her by her face and threw her against the wall with bone-breaking force. His eyes were solid gold, but pidge glared back as angrily as she could anyway, unwilling to allow him the satisfaction of seeing her pain. 

Each scar that littered her body was a punishment for trying to escape, or a memento of a particularly difficult fight, a permanent reminder of why she was to fear the galra. ‘Good thing I’m too stubborn for my own good’ pidge thought weakly to herself as she was thrown roughly into a healing pod. She barely caught the last angry glare of her commanding officer. If she had the energy, she would have scoffed as she fell into unconsciousness. 

pidge's dreams were far from pleasant. her brain chose- of all things- to recount all of the things pidge had learned about being an arena fighter. 

1: reputation was everything. if you could build a reputation to proceed you, most of the other fighters would respect you and leave you to your own devices. Pidge herself was lucky, in a sense. she had already had a lot of combat training with the paladins, so she could fight pretty well with or without a weapon. This was also a curse though as it turned out, because Pidge was held to a higher standard. which meant that they commanding officers kept a specially close eye on her, and set her up with more difficult fights than the other prisoners. 

2: Many galran mix breeds intentionally joined the arena fights as competitors. they were given three meals a day, a roof over their heads, and something to do other than rot in slums. it wasn't as surprising as it should have been, that only purebloods or almost purebloods were given any place or standing in galran society. so joining the arena made for a good setup as long as you could survive the brutal training regimen set by the commanding officers, and even more brutal fights- which were sometimes held back to back to back as one fighter marathons. pidge had almost cried when she realized that if Keith had grown up in galra society, the arenas would most likely be where he lived. 

3: comfort could only be found in the monotony of the timetable. Wake up, attempt to stomach the ‘breakfast’, be put in training group for daily ‘activities’, lunch, return to cell, dinner, cell, repeat. pidge didn't even have her brother's glasses to comfort her, or the picture of matt and herself that she almost always had on her person. She had left them both in her lab in the castle of lions to protect them from the upcoming battle, completely unaware that she would be captured. she looked back on her naive thoughts of 'I can't be captured' wistfully. 

4: Your past was useless. nobody cared what you were, who you were, or where you came from. everyone was on the same playing field, and you either survived and fought up the hierarchy, or you were squashed like a bug and forgotten. it didn't matter that pidge had been 'the green paladin of Voltron'. What mattered was that “Pidge gunderson, paladin of voltron, defender of the universe” had given way to “prisoner” as “Katie holt” had given way to pidge years ago. what mattered was that she could fight and win against monsters and opponents alike that were over three times her size, and she was stubborn enough that she refused to stop trying to escape. 

\----one and a half days----  
Allura’s POV

The paladins were all incredibly distressed by pidge’s absence- it was natural for them, the paladins were essentially a family. They all coped differently with their worry, but Allura quickly noticed how they would all linger near pidge’s lab whenever they passed the cluttered room, staring at the door in silence. 

In the training room the first day of her disappearance, the group of paladins got out the headsets that projected whatever the person wearing it was thinking about, and she could practically feel their bond growing stronger through the experience of losing pidge to the galra when some fond memory involving pidge showed up on all the projections. Not more than a day later, everyone was gathered in the training room once more for training, and Keith told them all about how the blade of Marmora had taught him to change his appearance to that of his galra heritage. 

The rest of the team had been all but captivated. Especially lance, who refused to stop trying to pet Keith's purple, cat-like ears, going on about how: “I need to see how soft they are! Come on, I won’t hurt you! I promise! Please, just once?” it had been good to see the stressed paladins laughing. Everyone had forgotten their problems for a little while and enjoyed themselves. Even Keith had been laughing, and he was the one being subjected to lance’s playful attacks. 

Allura had been a little nervous of Keith's ability at first, but once he explained that during an infiltration mission with the blade of Marmora they had shown him how to change his appearance to blend in easier and that it wasn’t permanent, Allura's nerves settled. The thought of the members of the coalition’s reactions to Keith looking like a galran made her shudder with anxiety. 

When she checked the security feed later like she did every night before she went to bed, and saw him practicing, it looked really hard. There had been sweat dripping down his brow he was concentrating so hard. besides, after she fast forwarded a few hours, she stumbled upon the video feed of lance entering the common room, sitting down with Keith and talking for a good hour and a half before lance leaned back the armrest of the couch, beaconing the red paladin towards himself. 

keith responded with an eye roll, but crawled up to sprawl himself over the blue paladin anyway. his cheek rested on Lance's chest, his arms wrapped around lance’s torso and their legs tangled together while the blue paladin threaded his hands through Keith's hair in what was probably a soothing manner. 

Within minutes, Keith had fallen asleep and upon closer inspection, Allura found that Keith was purring of all things. It was really hard to imagine him as a bloodthirsty galra soldier after that, even if he could look like one. Allura had to do a triple take on that bit of the film, she had never once seen either of the two paladins look quite that peaceful on each other’s presence, especially over the last couple of days stuck in the wormhole. Which reminded her of their current predicament. 

The castle had slowly been losing power from being in the wormhole so long, and Allura was getting both worried as well as tired. There was seemingly no end to their spatial prison in the predictable future. At least no-one was rapidly aging or growing younger, though, so Allura allowed herself that comfort. 

Even if that presented the other side of the proverbial game board of issues. corrupted wormholes were known to have such strong gravity internally that time would be warped on the inside. Meaning that even though the castle’s internal clock said it had only been two days, it could've been two weeks outside the wormhole, possibly even over a month's worth of difference depending on how strong the gravitational pulls had become in reaction to Haggar's spell. 

Allura voiced her concerns to Coran, and he agreed with her hypothesis, saying that it may have indeed been more time outside the wormhole than inside. he said he would see to taking some readings on the severity of the gravity, but it took him quite a while to get the readings back. The results were shocking. there was over two months worth of difference. They didn’t tell the paladins, instead resolving to work double time to find a way out of the wormhole faster.


	3. Of Tigers Who Need hugs and Mental Breakdowns

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> People can only go so far before they break, and pidge is no exception.

\-----six months----  
Pidge POV

This was by far the most challenging fight pidge had been through yet, but admittedly, the galrans should've known that putting a small human- no matter how resilient- up against a massive, furious, space saber tooth tiger that _really_ needs a nap and a hug is an exceptionally bad idea. ‘If they even want me alive anymore.’ pidge thought bitterly as she moved in for another attack to its venerable underside. 

Armed with nothing more than a space-metal spear, she sprinted at it, ducked under the beast’s massive claws, and, plunging the spear into its side, prepared to rip the monster open and gut it when it flung it’s body away from her, dislodging pidge and sending her flying into the air. It roared as it leapt after her, maw wide and ready to snap her in half like a toothpick with its fangs. The crowd’s screams, shouting for the thing to eat her, made something deep in pidge finally snap. 

It was like a switch had been flipped, and all of a sudden, all of pidge’s previous reservations and self-control went out the window. Somersaulting to narrowly escape the monster’s jaws, pidge flung herself forward and drove her spear directly into the tiger’s right eye. 

The creature all but screamed, shaking its head violently, only managing to lodge the spear further into its decimated eye socket. Pidge’s vision was blurry, and she could barely make anything out other than the sickening crunch of her bones and the clatter of the spear next to her head when she hit the ground. 

‘When did that happen?’ standing back up, pidge ran again at the monstrous tiger, using it’s dead eye as an advantage and going at its stomach again, successfully running her spear through it’s abdomen and tearing a gash into one of its legs in the process. She ducked away immediately after, loathing the feeling of her multiple broken ribs moving painfully in her chest and being sure to keep her weight off her right leg. 

The creature glared at her with it’s good eye. It was barely standing at this point. Pidge’s eyes flickered down to the entrails that were beginning to slip onto the ground in a gory pile of foul-smelling blood and intestines. Pidge should've been fighting the urge to hurl at the sight, but she found that her conscious had all but vanished. She would’ve been worried had the tiger not taken over her attention once more. The animal whimpered, it’s shaking becoming violent as it attempted valiantly to remain standing. 

Pidge responded immediately, stalking towards it slowly, flashing her teeth at it in a silent snarl. breathing hard and covered in both her and the tiger’s blood, pidge finished the match by tearing out the animal’s throat with her spear, brutally killing it. She muttered no apologies, this time. pointedly not looking back at the gory carcass in the center of the arena as she left, glaring at any and all the galrans she could during her painful commute to the guards waiting to escort her to a cryo pod in the infirmary. 

A group of druids all nodded approvingly to each other from a concealed balcony. Among them were the druids of the four directions, and leading them, Haggar herself. They left quickly, returning to their lab and preparing for their ‘special guest’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's so short, but this is something I wrote a while ago and had to cut it into chapters somehow. Any feedback is appreciated!


	4. Through The Bond

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge is taken from the arena, and Shiro sees through her eyes with the paladin bond.

\----nine months---  
Pidge POV

When pidge woke up, she could immediately feel a growing pit of dread in her stomach that was notably worse than normal. To distract herself, she ran over her last fight in her mind, subconsciously running her fingers over the newest scar she had procured; a long, thin, jagged scar that ran all the way around her neck. 

He had fought with a lasso-like weapon and had used it to catch her around the neck and throw her around like a ragdoll. The fight had been long and excruciating, but she had managed to defeat the champion and take his title. 

While pidge turned the fight over in her mind, she took her morning pee break, before brushing her fingers through her long, matted hair and re-braided it, securing the end with a strip of “fabric” that she had torn off her prisoner uniform. pidge move back to the pathetic excuse of a cot in the corner of her room to start her morning exercises after a moment of staring at the door. 

Admittedly, she had just copied Shiro's routine, minus the combat simulations at the end. Pidge flinched when the door opened, revealing two guards she had never seen before. She backed up to her cot defensively and snapped at them “it couldn’t be time for my next fight yet, what do you want?” neither guards said a word, just grabbed her and held her on the floor despite her struggling as they injected her with something that knocked her out near instantaneously. 

\----four days----  
Shiro’s POV

Shiro didn’t know what triggered it, but when he got up after another fitful night, he was incredibly nauseous. He had to scramble to the bathroom attached to his room seconds after waking up and hurl into the sink. His head was pounding, his limbs were heavy, and his empty stomach churned painfully, twisting as if it was a rag someone was wringing the water out of. 

He dry-heaved twice more before he managed to calm down enough to bring himself to release his death-grip on the lip of the sink. It felt like an eternity, and when Keith came knocking on his door with a concerned face, telling him that he missed breakfast and was late to training, he wasn’t surprised. Keith had to help him to the med bay and go get coran to see what was wrong, but by the time he returned with the somehow-always energetic ginger, Shiro had drifted into unconsciousness. 

He woke up hours later to worried faces around him, still feeling like he was hit head-on by a train. Looking at Keith, Allura and Coran's faces, they looked about the same as he probably did; tired, uncomfortable and worried. His nightmare came back to him in a rush, the vivid images of pidge wallpapering the forefront of his mind. 

The room was quiet, only three voices rotating through conversation, but the blood rushing through Shiro's ears was deafening, and the image of Pidge chained up in a cage somewhere, unable to move and either unconscious or dead made Shiro need to vomit once more. He subconsciously slapped a hand over his mouth and slammed his eyes shut, trying desperately to remove the image from his memory. 

He could tell he was shaking, but someone- Keith maybe? Coran? Decided the way to fix it as so slap him. Hard. he was immensely thankful though, as suddenly, his mind jerked to a halt. Everything came to a bearable pace and he could actually think straight enough to take in his surroundings and remember to breathe. 

He was still in the med bay of the castle, and Coran was standing above him looking incredibly pleased with himself. “Thanks” he felt his throat ground out to the ginger Altean. He could feel the prominent sting of his cheek where Coran had slapped him, and it took him a moment to recognize the alarm and relief on everyone's faces. Allura alone looked contemplative, opening her mouth then closed it as if not knowing what to say. Keith beat her to it- if more exasperated than Allura would have put it. “What was that?!” Shiro tried his honest best to answer honestly, but could only shrug hopelessly. 

“I- I don’t know.” his voice didn’t sound like his own, horse and cracked. He moved to rub his hands over his face, finding tear tracks on his cheeks. He hadn’t even realized he had been crying. He hesitated to break the silence “...What did I do?” again, his voice was strained and slow. 

The others in the room glanced around, and again, it was Keith that answered him. “You were pretty much dead to the world for almost ten minutes. you wouldn't stop muttering about something or other- you were practically sobbing though. Seriously, what happened?” Shiro didn’t know how to respond, trying to recollect his thoughts so that he could just tell them that everything was fine and he had just been stuck in a memory, but his mouth started running anyway. Unable to stop it, words tumbled out in a mass of scrambled, half-baked thoughts and sentences that made sense to himself alone. 

“It was pidge- she was in this- I think sh-she looked dead! But that's not- ” Allura's eyes widened immensely like she had an epiphany. “Okay, slow down, take a deep breath. Shiro? Just tell us what you saw, can you do that?” he could feel himself nodding and breathing like she showed him to. Shiro calmed his breathing before starting again, considerably calmer than his original rambling. his thoughts were too scrambled to filter what came out of his mouth though. 

“I don't know how, but I saw pidge, she was in this dark room somewhere, in a cell I think. I think I was seeing what she was seeing? She- she was in the Galra prison uniform, but it was really torn up. covered with holes and rips. and everything hurt, but I- she was restrained so that she couldn’t move at all- and everything was blurry like she had been unconscious, and it was dark-” Allura placed a calming hand on his shoulder and smiled reassuringly at him. “Thank you, Shiro.” Coran spoke up. “At least we know she is alive and kicking. if she can reach you through the paladin bond even when we’re stuck in a wormhole, then we might be able to find out where she is once we get out.” Shiro saw nodded and glanced around the room, but it did little to calm the nerves still reverberating through his mind. 

Hours later, he was tearing through training bots to let off steam when he realized that in the corner of pidge’s line of sight, there had been a cloaked figure that looked suspiciously like a druid. Shiro didn’t sleep that night.


	5. How Not to Play Operation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Druids are finally getting what they want, and the remaining residents of the castle of lions get what they want too. it's a win-lose-win!

\----one year two months----  
Pidge POV

Pidge woke up to the feeling of hitting a floor and an excruciating pain reverberating through her lungs. She was left Gasping and hacking up glowing blueish-purple chemicals for the first few minutes of semi-coherence. ‘First time I’m actually awake and I immediately break my lungs!’ her scattered mind supplied seconds before a hand came down hard on her soaked back, forcing the rest of the foul-tasting liquid from her body. 

Pidge was about to turn around to thank them, but the same hand then proceeded to grab her by the arms, drag her through a long series of identical dark purple walls, then throw her onto a metal table and strap her down so that she was completely unable to move. she had to shove down the red flags and think straight to find a way out though, so pidge resorted to sarcasm. 

“Geez. good morning pidge, how are you?” pidge muttered to herself, continuing when one of the druids came back “ I’m too used to getting treated like a sack of potatoes you need to- hey wait- whats on that table and why can’t I see it?” Looking around the room, she deduced that she was still in a druid lab; immediately not a good place to be based off what they did to Shiro.more red flags were silenced. 

Her mind analyzed the room. No guards, low light, incredibly cold, and where had her prison suit gone? She didn’t remember them taking it off- and she certainly wouldn’t have. what else did they do that she wasn’t aware of? Every situation possible began swarming pidge’s mind. Only increasing her fear when a druid re-entered the room with a second covered table. 

Three more druids entered over what had to be an hour, one turning on a painfully bright white light above her before leaving again. She had been growing continuously more concerned from the moment she woke up, the mountain of fears and red banners in her mind becoming harder and harder to shove away from the front of her brain. once pidge’s tired, scared mind supplied a picture of herself made up of half machine, under Haggar's control, being used as a puppet to defeat Voltron, pidge all but panicked. 

pidge found herself unable to breathe yet struggling fiercely against her bonds at the same time. The druids around her ignored her sudden panic and continued to speak quietly to each other in galran, before all of them nodded, hitting a series of buttons on a tablet before hooking her up to what looked like an iv and a blood bag, putting some sort of guard in her mouth, and beginning their work. 

For the next few hours, Pidge’s entire existence became a blur of bright lights, and absolute agony, before she passed. the druids did as they pleased with her all the while, seemingly only to pay pidge any attention to either make sure she wasn't dead or continue implanting er body with varying chemicals. she decided, during the procedure, that Shiro was incredibly lucky. he had barely any recollection of his time with the Galra, no recollection at all of the surgery to connect his metal arm to his body. 

Their dark hooded features loomed over her ceaselessly, implanting her body with not even god knows what. Pidge had managed to fall into a weird sort of numb haze for a while, until another fluorescent light came on overhead, burning into her unprepared retinas and shocking her awake and back into cruel reality. The moment she did, she began screaming and thrashing wildly against the belts holding with renewed vigor- pleading for the druids to stop; to either stop hurting her or just kill her. That was it before she completely blacked out from pain and exhaustion. 

\----one year seven months----  
Shiro’s POV

It took about a week to get out of the corrupted wormhole. It had been pretty awful, with the constant headaches, nausea, and the loss of pidge- not to mention his breakdown. The second the paladins realized that pidge was nowhere on the ship, they had pulled together a makeshift plan for once they got out, but They hadn’t expected their exit to be made an entire week later. 

Seven days of constant nausea, headaches, and stress on the team had made for both really good bonding as a team, but also innumerable Quarles. Surprisingly enough, most of those quarrels were between Keith and either coran or Allura, not lance and Keith. the two of them had little spats, sure, but their fights didn’t have the spark of genuine anger they used to have, they were playful, attempts at humor to ease the difficult situation even. 

Shiro could tell that the two were closer than they let the team in on, but it wasn’t his place to pry- as long as neither of them were constantly going at each other’s throats anymore, then it was appreciated. Coran and Allura were especially stressed though, with good reason too. For more reasons than they originally let on too. once they got out of the wormhole, the two alteans dropped a bomb on the paladins that shook all of them to their bones. 

Coran had been the one to pull up a bunch of charts and tell the paladins to sit down to go over their plan of action. The charts all looked wrong to be levels of galra in the area- that's what the galra finder was for anyway- and hunk had been the one to decipher them first. He had interrupted coran after the first pause in the recap of the plan by pointing at the glowing screen and hesitantly questioning the ginger he interrupted. “coran, do those mean what I think they do?” admittedly, Shiro had been distracted by them as well, but the tone of hunk’s voice worried them. He had become less timid throughout his time in the team, but he sounded genuinely worried. Coran had swiveled to look up and had paled a bit, but remained enthusiastically energetic sounding anyway. 

“Well- I was going to get around to that, i didn’t want you to be too distracted as we went over the plan. And to answer your question, that depends entirely on if you read them correctly.” Allura spoke next. “ we did everything in our power to ensure that we escaped of the wormhole as fast as possible once we found out. there was only so much we could do to expedite the process though, and as i’m sure hunk has figured out, compromised wormholes are known to have strong enough gravitational conflicts within them that they warp time on the inside... meaning that it could have been- how do you humans say? ah- years inside the wormhole, but only minutes outside.” Allura took a deep breath. “Or, a week inside, and-" she turned to the screen behind her and waved her arm at it “over a year and a half outside.” Shiro could feel the fear and realization radiating off the other paladins, as well as his own eyes widening. 

Realization hit him like a ton of bricks, and before the other paladins could process what was happening, he was up off his chair and in leader mode. “Okay then, in that case, change of plans- we need to find the closest galran outpost and patch into their radios.” The sudden urge to vomit hit Shiro stronger than a tidal wave, but he forced it down. he could deal with his sudden rising panic later, once the rest of the team wasn’t watching him. He continued after taking a moment to recollect himself. 

“if they say anything about a new or especially skilled champion in the arena, then we’ll know where we need to go.” his voice was strong again, solid. Once again he had shut down his emotions in favor of being the leader he knew the team would need. Allura and Coran exchanged looks before pulling up pidge’s galra finder and started scanning the nearby galaxies for galran outposts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will probably come back later to rewrite the part where pidge is in surgery, I don't really like how it turned out. But on another note, any comments or suggestions are welcome!


	6. The Green Lion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The green lion returns and the paladins have a plan.

\---one year eight months----  
Pidge POV

Pidge woke up in a fit of panicked confusion. Jerking around, she was back in her cell in the prison, back on the paper-thin cot, somehow not missing any limbs. ‘When did I get back here?’ her mind tried to supply but was far too out of it to focus properly. The only constant was the buzzing in her head and the pit in her stomach. 

Something was wrong- no- something was finally right? There was a familiar buzzing in the back of her mind, one she hadn’t felt since- ‘no. there was no way, I haven't heard from greenie since the wormhole.’ Pidge tried to reassure herself, but she could feel it, her connection with green was more present than it had been in what felt like a lifetime. Pidge allowed herself to close her eyes, reaching for it and attempting to draw green’s presence closer to herself, allowing herself to find comfort as the consistent buzzing grew louder and became the familiar rumbling purr of the robotic lion. ‘I don’t usually have good dreams...’ pidge thought distantly as she allowed herself to be enveloped in the calming sensation of her lion in her mind. She could feel the robotic lion struggling with something, and tried to calm her down, eventually allowing herself to be swept up and enveloped completely by her lion’s presence. 

Opening her eyes again, she found herself in a large open field of grass, resting underneath some alien tree. Pidge found herself staring off into the endless grass around til the far-off purple horizon. The only thing near her was the green lion, sitting resolute a ways away in front of her. Realisation washed over her, and Pidge leaped up and ran forward towards her lion, thrilled to finally see her lion again after far too long, relief flooding through her body until she recognized that she couldn't seem to actually go anywhere- she couldn’t get any closer to her beloved lion. Fresh tears welled up in pidge’s eyes, “greenie? It’s me, it’s Pidge… don’t you- don’t you remember me?” she whimpered, her voice sounding small in the silence. 

She could hear a quiet rumble that reverberated throughout her entire being and the ground around her, shaking her core and forcing her back onto the ground. “Greenie! Where have you been? Did the Galra get to you? Did they hurt you? Say something!” To say Pidge was done was an understatement. She had fallen from her knees to sit on her folded legs, her hands gripping the grass beneath her hard enough that her knuckles turned white and her arms cramped. 

Pidge didn’t even realize the pain as she shouted at the lion, asking all the questions she had forced herself to ignore during her time with the Galrans. all the pent-up desperation, anxiety, fear, and loneliness crashing down on her in a tidal wave of previously repressed emotion, and for the first time since she had left earth in the blue lion, pidge let all the emotions drown her and be released from the deepest depths of her mind. 

The green lion watched her, her presence becoming pidge’s only steady comfort through her ranting. Pidge didn’t know how long she stayed like that, talking to her lion after she had calmed down, telling her all that she could remember had happened. But she did know that It wasn’t long before green had walked over to pidge and curled up around her almost in a protective manner, purring loudly in pidge’s mind and allowing her voice to seep into pidge’s consciousness, muttering soothing words and promises to her until pidge fell into her first peaceful rest in what felt like a lifetime. 

\----2 years----  
Shiro’s POV

The paladins searched the transmissions going between galran ships for three months before finding anything helpful. As it turned out, The Galrans are apparently very serious about their arena bets. Some of them would bet what sounded like over a hundred GAC that their ‘champion’ would win “the biggest fight since their leave a half a year ago” there was so much hype for the event that the paladins found where the arena was fairly easy. He wondered if that had been what it was like for his fights when he was the champion. It was strange, thinking of pidge being the “ruthless, brutal murderer” that was described as the champion. It was said that the champion had been on a “special training” leave with the druids for over half a year. When they heard it, a collective shudder had reverberated through all the paladins, the reality that pidge may come back with robot parts or worse rearing its ugly head. Nonetheless, the paladins had devised a plan. 

The arena the event was held in was huge. Much larger than Shiro remembered it. He realized that it was a different arena entirely once he saw the see-through roof the huge building sported. It was on a large planet covered in expansive blueish green forests and what looked like crimson lakes. The team decided to send in Shiro and Keith, because Keith could shapeshift to look like a galran, and Shiro had a galran arm that he could claim he got from a fight with one of the paladins if asked. 

As long as he kept his face covered, he would be fine. It was an intel gathering infiltration mission, just to find out if “the longest standing champion recorded” was really pidge. The few hours before the plan was set into motion were immensely tense, everyone on edge and coping in their own ways with the news that they had been gone for over a year and a half. Shiro was on the bridge, mentally preparing himself for being in one of the arenas again since he escaped. Allura and Coran were conversing with mindless chatter just to fill the silence while they flew the castle ship closer to their destination. “We’ll be at the arena in approximately 15 dobashes.” Coran announced through the comm system. 

\----two years----  
Pidge’s POV

The soldiers had grabbed pidge a few minutes ago, pulling her forcefully through the all too familiar halls by the chains on her feet, leaving most of her body to be dragged uncomfortably across the filthy, hard floor. She would have snapped at them, kicked or punched at them, but her hands and feet were bound by quintessence resistant gloves, boots and cuffs- much like the specially made muzzle covering her lower face. 

As irritating and uncomfortable as the restraints were, however, It was hardly executive considering the abilities the druids had forced in her. A large part of her was proud that they were afraid of her, that she was a major threat if not “handled properly”. The druids had spent what had to be over half a year implanting her body with quintessence and teaching (more like forcing) her to use it. 

Her bones ached at the faint memory of the druid’s teaching methods. Right now though, she just has to survive her current match. Pidge had no doubt that they would make it much more difficult than all her previous matches, the druids had, after all, been successful in their experiment and right before she was taken she had become the champion. that was one of the few matches she could remember fairly clearly, the sharp sting of the studded chord around her neck specifically. 

Apparently there was a ridiculous amount of hype for her return match because it was her first fight after being taken to the druids for “special training.” she could hear the crowds cheering as the announcer started up his gimmick for the first match. Pidge was at the very back of the line, showing that she was the last fight of the night. ‘Of course, they have to build anticipation.’ she thought. 

The looks the other prisoners gave her were fearful and wary. ‘With good reason I suppose.’ pidge thought. They acted like she was as bad as the monsters they were forced to fight. ‘Oh. they’re right about that now, aren't they?’ pidge suddenly realized. even the rebel officers and commanders that were captured had seemed scared of her- the few she had managed to corner, however, had told her that the coalition had almost fallen apart and was barely holding the Galra Empire back without Voltron. pidge had plans to change that once she got out. 

Nonetheless, She was like their opponents now, a cold-blooded murderer. not long before the druids had taken her, it was like her conscious had completely shut down, and while her reunion with the green lion had sort of kickstarted her again, Pidge remembered the shut-down leaving her in a haze of nothing but anger, retaliation, and the occasional streak of bloodlust. She had retained her ability to observe and conquer, thankfully, defeating her opponents by out-thinking them, but there was no more remorse for the 78 or so lives she didn't even remember taking. 

She had barely even kept track of them, the only reason she knew was that when they returned to her cell after each fight or stay in the med-pods, there was a number by her door they changed, labeled "kills:--" with an ever growing number. That's why there were four guards surrounding her; to make sure she didn’t get lose and destroy the entire building. ‘Which they are right to worry about. I’d Gladly Kill the guards and everyone else while I’m at it.’ Pidge thought bitterly to herself. 

Only going back on that thought with ‘well, not the prisoners, but the Galra can go. definitely the druids at least.’ as an afterthought. one of the guards bent down to make sure she was still securely bound. He tightened the straps when he saw her glare at the concealed box where the druids were seated. 

The cuffs clenched down on her hands, making their position behind her back that much more uncomfortable. The things went from her wrists to her elbows, unlike the ankle cuffs. It was ridiculously uncomfortable, their only redeeming factor the thick quintessence resistant socks and gloves beneath the restraints that provided a bit of padding. 

The line of around 18 prisoners in front of pidge had moved up about three people, leaving pidge to mentally go over her escape plan for the umpteenth time. the fights were generally short. even when it was a rebel officer, they never lasted more than ten to fifteen minutes. Pidge wrinkled her nose under the uncomfortable muzzle. The ever-present stench of the blood used to, and honestly still should've made bile rise in pidge’s throat, but she was thankful that she was entirely desensitized to the scent since returning. 

Pidge shifted again, trying to relieve the pressure on her arms a bit. "tsk. you'll get your chance, Prisoner." one of the guards snapped as she continued squirming. "calm down." pidge wanted to smack him. Couldn't she even try and get comfortable without being treated like an animal? What did she even do during the time she couldn't remember? ‘if it’s a monster they want, it’s a monster they’ll get.’ her mind supplied. that was another bit she didn't remember at all. when had that happened? 

pidge thought back, somewhat proud that she had made it through the druids and came back still alive and herself again. well, mostly. She knew she had picked up the name "prisoner" while with the druids. they began referring to her as “Prisoner" instead of “champion” or “#1857398” not long after they got their bony hands on her. 

tugging on the chains connected to her wrists brought pidge back from her musings, and she readied herself for the upcoming fight, rolling her shoulders and neck as they dragged her up the stairs and into the blindingly bright, obscenely loud arena. the scene was painfully natural to be in, for reasons pidge could assume came with extended exposure to the ring, and pidge realized that she probably didn't have enough recollection of the rest of her time fighting to be able to pull off beating whatever she was against. 

Pidge felt green’s tug in the back of her mind, telling her sternly “good luck” and “come back to me alive.” she sounded worried, but whether it was for pidge’s current thought process or her actual health, pidge was unsure. Maybe it was both. She was aware that her lion could hear her thoughts. ‘Don't worry greenie, I’m not planning on dying anytime soon. I’ll see you after I get out!’ pidge said it to try and reassure the lion, but she had to note how she needed the reassurance too. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sory about not posting yesterday, some stuff came up and I didn't manage to read through the chapter again and post it.


	7. Of Angry Scaly Worms and Tripping People Who Have Tazers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shiro and Keith see pidge for the first time in Two years, and the first thing she does is trip a dude. They Really should have seen that one coming.

Shiro’s POV

The matches had almost finished, and Shiro had taken more than a few breaks to the bathrooms to calm his nerves, but the biggest event had yet to happen. the crowd was more than ready, Their cheers were just short of overwhelming. if it weren't for Keith's familiar presence beside him, Shiro would've lost it at least seven matches ago. He was on the verge of leaving again, until Keith gasped beside him and punched him in the shoulder, pointing forward with a clawed hand. The announcer was dragging who he was shouting to be the champion across the arena to the center podium. 

It looked like a girl, with matted, bloodstained cherry blond hair messily braided over her right shoulder. Shiro’s eyes caught on her bright, calculating, molten gold eyes. “Katie” escaped his mouth before a hand clamped over it. Keith was glaring at him with a look that screamed “don't blow our cover idiot!” his eyes betrayed him though, as did his shaking hands. 

Pidge’s arms were bound behind her back, covered by black gloves and cuffs that went up to her elbows, connected so that they would prevent any arm movement at all. Her feet were bound as well by ankle shackles, a chain connecting them so that she could walk, but just barely. there was no way she could maneuver well in those. there were thick-looking black knee-high socks covered in glowing druid ruins, however, causing the possibility of druid tampering to resurface in Shiro's mind. 

The worst part had to be the muzzle though. ‘Do they really see her as that much of a threat so as to actually muzzle her?’ Shiro didn’t know whether to take pride that his pidge was considered that dangerous or to be scared that they had broken her and made her a monster that actually needed all the restraints to keep her from going on a rampage. ‘No, Katie is stronger than that.’ he tried to reassure himself. 

Shiro began to notice the differences between her from the last time he had seen her though. Signs that it really had been two years. Pidge had grown out long, filthy hair that was braided over her right shoulder -dangling almost to her hip- and she had grown at least two inches taller, as well as gained impressive lean muscle pretty much everywhere visible. his eyes were drawn to hers. They were still the bright honey he remembered, but they were alarmingly indifferent as she stared blankly at the crowd. 

Her body language said otherwise after inspection though. her muscles tense under the torn up black prisoner uniform. to the untrained eye, she would have seemed perfectly at home under the white lights and screaming crowd. Looking her over again, he wanted nothing more than to protect her from anything and everything that wanted to hurt her. keith snapped him back to reality with another light punch on the shoulder. “Pull yourself together!” he whispered sharply to him. his voice was angry, but his eyes were glassy, reflecting that he was just as scared- surprised? as Shiro was. 

The announcer’s voice suddenly grew considerably louder then, “- And tonight, as a surprise, we have another special treat to go with the return of our beloved champion, a very impressive opponent created specifically for your viewing pleasure! Allow me to introduce- uagh!” the guards had been working diligently to remove pidge’s arm restraints while the announcer talked, but right as he was about to introduce her opponent, she kicked him in the back of his knees, causing him to fall on his back and let out an alarmed, almost indignant noise that was far from flattering. 

The entire audience burst out laughing at once, and even Keith was snickering. I was incredibly relieving to know that pidge still had her sense of humor- they really should've known she would do that, they practically set her up for it- but Shiro knew full well that the galran announcer would not take well to the public humiliation. 

Sure enough, he snapped out an electric staff, and, after standing back up, he extended one end and slammed it into pidge’s stomach, making her seize up. Keith's snickering stopped short and Shiro grabbed his arm to stop them both from jumping into the arena and beating the everloving snot out of the galran. 

Looking back to the arena, the announcer said something to the guards with a cruel smile, and Shiro watched them obediently put the arm cuffs and muzzle back on pidge, locking them up somehow tighter looking than before. They had removed the leg restraints thankfully but left the strange socks in place. Looking closely, Shiro could see the ruins shinning menacingly. He suppressed a shudder at the implications. 

“Now that that is over with, allow me to introduce to you, my dear audience, to the Vipers!!” he finished, and not a second later, he and the rest of the guards had retreated to the edges of the arena, releasing three massive animals from their cages just out of sight of the audience. 

The creatures were at least 20 feet in length, with mostly snake-like bodies aside from their back legs, and clawed, leathery wings that acted as their front legs. All three of them had glowing golden eyes without any irises to speak of. the largest, however, was graced with a third eye in the center of its forehead and darker scales than the other two. The three of them made it to one side of the large circular podium in the middle of the arena, standing in a triangle formation, regarding pidge as she wiggled her gloved hands in the cuffs the guards had left on her. 

She had stood up from her position lying on the floor, but It looked like she wasn't paying any attention to the serpents as they began circling around the podium. The look on pidge’s face was growing more and more irritated the longer she fiddled with the arm-cuffs behind her back. The serpent's looked incredibly wary of her, despite her obvious disadvantage. 

It was clear that this isn't their first fight. pidge was tiny compared to the massive beasts, though, not to mention visibly defenseless and partially restrained. Her situation both confusing the animals, as well as putting them further on edge. Pidge looked to be getting angry and was pretty much completely ignoring her adversaries. Or so it seemed. 

Shiro could see pidge’s eyes watching the serpent's closely, monitoring their every breath while focusing on her hands at the same time. She was making it look like she wasn't paying attention to make them drop their guards, if only by a fraction. 

The drones that roamed the arena kicked on then, showing up close footage of the first attack of the fight. the biggest of the serpents reared back and let out a stream of what appeared to be acid directly at pidge, who spun at the last second, dodging far too late for Shiro's liking. When pidge turned around, she held her arms out behind herself as far as possible and let the acid melt the metal right off her body. 

Shiro’s breath caught at the incredibly risky move, but her actions seemed pre-thought out, calculated and precise. he watched pidge fling herself backward out of reach of the serpents’ lunges and yank the muzzle from her face, hurling it at the alarmed looking guards along with the socks and gloves they had left on her. pidge’s face was the picture of the cat who got the canary when she returned her attention to the serpents’ advances. The fight had officially begun, and Shiro was _not_ ready for it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I didn't post a chapter yesterday, I figured I'd do two today, so I guess happy early Christmas? also, as a side note- shit's about to go down.


	8. Does it Count as Murder if You Didn't get a Choice?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge's point of view of her fight with the vipers.

\----Pidge’s POV----

The fight was off to a really good start, in pidge’s mind. she’d gotten the cuffs and muzzle off immediately, allowing her to slip off her quintessence blocking gloves and socks. Now the real fight could begin. Off instinct, She rubbed her hands together and bounced on the balls of her feet while dodging the serpent's assaults, loving the invigorating feeling of the energy in her veins warming up and enhancing her senses. 

For the first time since she woke up after being shipped back to the prison, she finally felt _alive_. The fire had been lit, and pidge was more than ready for the strangely familiar burning to pour through her veins and fuel her body. The searing sensation in her bones led her movements, muscle memory serving her perfectly. even if she didn't remember most of her time in the arena, her body did, leading her through motions that pidge herself didn't really recognize. it was like her mind had gone into autopilot, leaving her aware of her surroundings, but not really in control of what she did. 

Leaping away from the serpents surprisingly fast attacks, pidge’s eyes searched for a weak spot in their armored hides. Dropping to the ground in a tuck roll, she skidded underneath one, finding exactly what she needed. soft, penetrable skin hidden under the layers of protection in the form of armored scales and leathery wings. Pidge smirked unconsciously. “checkmate!” she thought, her mental applause being cut short a second later when the beast above her kicked her away from itself with its tail, knocking the air out of her lungs and sending her flying into the air. 

Pidge could feel a few of her ribs snap from the force of the attack, meaning that there were probably several more that were cracked. ‘That one will cost me-’ flew through her mind. She could vaguely hear herself scream as she flew, but As awful as it was, at the same time, pidge couldn't help but take pride in that she had survived much worse. the few memories she had retained in her time with the druids were considerably worse than a couple broken ribs. 

Using that thought as fuel, She used the prolonged air to focus her quintessence in her legs, feet, hands, and arms. once she started falling, she used the energy to propel herself forwards, hitting the ground running at one of the smaller serpents. she landed a significant blow on the legs of the serpent using the energy she gathered in her arms. 

Pidge figured she had learned that trick pretty early on judging by how easily she conjured the energy over her limbs. by gathering the quintessence around her hands, arms, or legs and heating it up to be far beyond searing, she could prevent any damage to herself (everything melted too quickly to cause any broken bones by impact) and inflict serious damage at the same time. its versatility was coming in really handy. 

She used the ground being back beneath her to her advantage. Manipulating her quintessence into a ball of energy at her fingertips, pidge sent a fluorescent beam of electric green energy up to hit one of the smaller beasts heads. As expected, it was only stunned for a few seconds before it lunged at her. Pidge jumped up and let the monster catch her in its jaws. it immediately began to try and swallow her, but pidge had other plans. 

she made her entire body to light up with power, searing the monster's mouth with inexplicable heat. It began to try to spit her out, but she didn’t let it, instead using the beast’s quintessence against it and causing it to become active by forcing massive amounts of her own quintessence into its system all at once, creating a large enough imbalance fast enough for the reaction to be violently explosive. 

It was another skill she had to have learned from the druids in her time with them. She could hear the crowd’s calls all around her as she allowed the force of the monster’s explosion to throw her into the air again, Directly into the stomach of one of the other serpents. Pidge was honestly both scared, and incredibly pleased with herself for that one- she hadn't even planned it! 

In the seconds it took to reach the other serpent, pidge managed to gather the quintessence from the body of the dead serpent and pull it smoothly through her own body before shooting it through her fingertips in the form of- in her opinion gorgeous- golden lightning. 

the beam of electricity hit its target dead on, the animal not having a fast enough reaction time to come out of its shock and dodge or block pidge’s attack, allowing the lightning to blast a hole straight into its body, setting the animal ablaze from the inside out- practically cooking it. 

Pidge felt bad for using the animal's brother's energy to kill it, but she crushed the remorse as soon as it surfaced. now was not the time, nor place. The animal all but screamed in agony and flailed from its position hovering over the arena, falling to the ground in a heap of pained screeching. that sound would be the centerpiece of her nightmares for days. 

Pidge was sure to make a hasty retreat though, being sure to put space between herself and the animals. she remained watching from a safe-enough distance as the last living serpent sprinted over to it, completely ignoring her presence like she couldn't kill it right then if she wanted to. The animal’s distraction allowed pidge to register the agony in her lungs once more, as well as the screaming of the crowd as she hovered in the air a good distance away from the mourning animal. 

She owed it time to mourn though, she just killed it’s brothers- with their own life force no less! The remnants of the first serpent floated gently to the ground in the form of reddish-brown ash, and the scent of burnt flesh hung heavy in the air with it. The second serpent finally died off with one final cry of pain as the snow-like ash drifted to the floor in a facade of serenity. Pidge grit her teeth and looked away, trying to shake off the weight on her shoulders and the feel of drying blood all over her back, Muttering to herself: “This is so, so wrong, greenie. I did that!” pidge got only a low purr in response, but it was no less comforting than words. 

The largest of the serpents was still nudging its comrade gently, cooing sadly as if to comfort it, but it was gone. The beast looked at pidge then, sheer fury burning in its eyes. It stood to its full height on its back legs, flared its wings and let out what should've been a blood-curdling roar. Pidge glowered back at it, allowing anger to surface and wipe remorse from her thoughts as she stood straighter, clenching her fists and shoving her inner turmoil into the box of “things I am pointedly ignoring” in the deepest depths of her mind to be dealt with later. 

She matched it’s glare with her own fury, physically reminding it that they were in the exact same boat. That neither of them wanted to be there, and neither of them had a choice because it was either kill or be killed. It paused, regarding her before straightening once more and barking at her, attempting to threaten her. the chillingly cold _“Come at me.”_ that he got in response was scary even to pidge’s own ears. 

she didn’t even bat an eye at its display of power, her eyes only hardening at its attempts to faze her. Pidge thought offhandedly that she really must have had to have seen far too much for that to not bother in the slightest, but what she remembered of her fight with the champion, or her time with the druids was far more terrifying than any glorified scaly worm. 

It snapped its fangs at her and charged just as pidge finished collecting it’s second fallen brother's quintessence. Pidge didn’t realize the almost crazy smile that worked it's way onto her face as she focused on defeating the serpent, still having to revel for a minute in the incredible, overwhelming feeling of quintessence flowing through her veins and out of her fingertips in attacks as well as shields of pure energy. 


	9. The Way I See It

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge's Fight from Shiro's point of view.

\----shiro’s POV----

Shiro’s eyes were glued to the match in front of him, analyzing every move pidge and the serpent made as it and pidge clashed in the arena. She had killed off the two smaller ones with admittedly surprising skill, but the third and largest of her opponents seemed to be considerably stronger. Or it was just a lot angrier- it was hard to tell. 

He was still awed by Pidge's newfound fighting skill though, even if it came from her time in the arena. she was holding her own against the massive beast with no major injuries to show for it as far as he could tell other than a possible cracked rib or two, but she hid them exceptionally well. There were massive dents and holes burned into the floor of the arena from where the serpent had tried to hit pidge with acid and missed, or where pidge had missed with an attack of her own. It was nerve-wracking to see pidge narrowly dodge a swipe or get hit with a splash of acid. 

It made Shiro's heart ache to see pidge be able to murder in cold blood though- he wondered if she even knew what was happening, or was just acting off instinct. her movements were spontaneous- smooth and flowing but lacking in any sort of trackable pattern or style. it was almost like she was working entirely off muscle memory and improvised situational luck. It made it seem like pidge wasn't really even there- her eyes had clouded over with green like she was under some sort of spell, the green seeping more prominently into her irises the longer she fought. The thought was somehow better than pidge knowing what she was doing, and taking pride- finding enjoyment even through killing in the ring. Shiro took a moment to realize that it was a possibility that pidge was under the influence of druids- he had no idea what the galra had done with her. 

The look on pidge’s face when she had used the force of an explosion to propel herself into one of them was one of pure pride. like it was an accomplishment to make two kills at once. It terrified him, the satisfied look in her large, glassy honey eyes as she landed an especially good hit, or landed well after the serpent threw her. 

At the beginning of the fight, the moment her restraints had come off, it was like a switch flipped somewhere in pidge’s mind. the life had flooded back into her eyes, and her movements were almost exited as she removed the restraints on her form. She had gone from looking half asleep and partially coherent to wide awake and energized. Keith had gasped quietly when he saw the difference, just as surprised and confused as Shiro was. 

When pidge had shot the second serpent with what looked like lightning, Keith's jaw had practically dropped to the floor. Shiro was pretty sure his had too, but he was too mesmerized to notice if it had, although it was probably for completely different reasons. Shiro was internally panicking. How had the druids managed to do that? What else had they done to her? was that even still pidge down there? Or was it some brainwashed soldier lookalike the druids were showing off? Questions swirled through Shiro's head at lightning speed, so much so that he almost missed the escalation of the fight in front of him. 

A loud curse followed by an even louder roar echoed above the crowd around them, snapping his attention back to reality. The ash that remained on the ground was thrown up into the air as the massive serpent came down onto pidge’s form, throwing her around on the ground with an audibly sickening crunch. pidge screamed, a cry of agony that tore through the cheers. The crowd around Keith and Shiro was screaming for the serpent to eat pidge, to be the first adversary to defeat their champion. shiro had to grip the seat of his chair as well as Keith's arm to keep from leaping into the arena and fighting off the animal. 

The serpent, apparently seeing his chance to end the fight, looked like he was tearing pidge’s body apart, but through the swarm of reddish ash and lightning fast movement, nothing was clear. Shiro’s brain had all but ceased to function, but he was rooted to his seat, unable to make his limbs move. There were obvious signs of struggle, the cries the animal made slowly changing from triumphant and victorious, to alarmed and strained as multiple bursts of electric green light sizzled to life in the haze, radiating in uneven shockwave-like patterns sporadically over the floor. 

Seconds later, another large form came seemingly out of nowhere to fight back with equal, if not double the ferocity. The suspense in the air could be cut with a butter knife as the two clashed. even though the crowd was obscenely loud, Shiro could hear the sounds of the fight in the arena; vicious snarls, gnashing teeth and claws raking against the ground as well as each other. he could hear the sizzling of acid on something, the crackling bursts of lightning, and sharp hissing sounds radiating from their tussle. 

Shiro glanced towards Keith, to find him looking strangely fascinated. An ear piercing shriek quieted the arena and stole back Shiro's attention before he could question the red paladin about it. It rattled the room, shaking the seats and vibrating through the air. The serpent went flying from the ash-cloud, still screaming and bleeding from every orifice on its face, and missing dozens of its plate-like scales. they littered the ground, either ripped clear from its body or just barely hanging on. there was a particularly nasty looking gash on the animal's face that was burned closed, leading Shiro to realize that the serpent's back right leg and the end of its tail had both been torn clear from its body. 

the beast couldn't stand. it managed a half crouch on violently shaking front legs that had painful-looking bite marks on them, but they looked more than ready to give out if they were so much as tapped too hard. there were claw marks and burns all over the animal's underside as well. a second beast emerged from the cloud, then, growling low and intimidating, it’s presence the essence of brutal fury. beside himself, Shiro could hear Keith mutter “oh shit” as his own eyes went wide.


	10. Lion At Heart

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pidge Is a What Now?

\----pidge’s POV----

Pidge only half knew how her fight managed to escalate quite this far at this point. she remembered being really, really mad at the snake for one reason or another, then bits of a deadly wrestling match on the floor, then an excruciating agony flooding through her body, and black. everything was black for what felt like minutes, but when she was able to open her eyes again, it must have been, because everything was suddenly smaller, and she was looming over the dead body of the viper, a large blood-stained green and cream paw embedded in its neck. was that hers? 

Pidge could feel that her muscles were stronger than ever, and disregarding the immobilizing agony that could only have been moving her muscles, organs, and changing the shape of her bones, the feeling of absolute power that surged through her veins was so exhilarating that she let the hiss that was seeping from the back of her throat become a violent growl, then a blood-curdling roar. she threw her head back in victory, practically proclaiming her victory to the audience as if they couldn't see the blood on her. 

Pidge felt a rush of adrenaline and power course through her system and snorted proudly as she withdrew her (her??) paw from her former opponent's jugular vein. ‘Good. you all should be afraid, this is the monster you created.’ 

Pidge made her features appear as threatening as they could be, a low growl seeping from her throat as she unsheathed her claws to intentionally clack them against the ground. She swayed her long tails behind her, attempting to distract herself from the amount of wounds she could feel she had either reopened or made worse. Her entire body was tense as she came up to loom over the serpent. It stilled and glared at her with an expression that screamed “just do it already you monster.” So she did. reaching over to press her claws down on its jugular, cutting off airflow as well as blood flow as she severed its jugular and arteries in one swift go. 

To pidge, it was an absolute last ditch effort to be somewhat merciful in their mutual barbaric situation. Even still however, pidge couldn’t deny the surge of pleasure that raked through her at the sensation of blood soaking her large paw, and the enjoyment that she found in bones snapping under her weight. 

It was moments like these that pidge truly did feel like a monster, when she allowed the bloodlust to surface and took pleasure in the constant gore and violence around her. she couldn't seem to wipe the sadistic smile off her face. Pidge shuddered violently and attempted to shake off the darkness that had crawled into her mind again. She would need all her concentration to put her escape plan into action. 

Her eyes scanned the crowd, engraving the sight of the witnesses of her last fight in the ring into her mind. She was almost enjoying the sight of their scared faces until they caught an all too familiar pair of steel gray eyes, staring at her with open shock, confusio, and horror. Pidge froze in her fur, going shock still, all her muscles going tight and stiff. She vaguely registered her ears laying flat against the back of her head again and her tails curling underneath her. 

Suddenly, everything seemed too bright, the screeching crowd too loud, and the massive auditorium bagan to close in around her as she stared in horror at those gorgeous steel eyes she missed so much over the past two years. One thought alone stayed prominent in her mind through the sudden chaos that plagued her suddenly reawakened conscious: ‘he wasn’t supposed to see this!’ 

\----Shiro’s POV----

The second the serpent had gone flying, another beast had emerged from the ash cloud and silenced the entire auditorium with a truly blood curdling roar that could only be properly described as _feral_. Pidge was nowhere to be seen, and shiro was about to voice his fears to keith, but he realized a second too late that that animal was pidge. 

The air turned heavy as the audience started in absolute amazement at the spectacle. Keith and himself included, lungs devoid of air. With good reason too, pidge’s new appearance was both terrifying, and incredible. 

She had a build not too unlike a massive lion, standing at what had to be 16 feet of pure muscle. She had two long fluffy tails that swayed from her hindquarters, flowering vines twisting through them gracefully, appearing almost dainty with the multiple flowers that grew from them. large paws with massive claws completed the powerful legs that held up pidge’s body, and She was covered in long, thick, deep green fur that was almost reminiscent of the green lion covering the majority of her body, save for the beige accents covering her muzzle, stomach, the insides of her legs, as well as the undersides of her tails and spotted over her back. 

Shiro’s eyes were drawn to the impressive set of antlers that rested on her head, regal as a crown. the appendages were dusted with multiple different types of flowers that were all in boom, their leaves sprouting near them somehow holding on as she moved. There were flowers all over her when shiro looked closely. They were more prominent around her neck, almost like a mane of flowers, and there were clusters of flowers around her ankles too, sending thin vines spiraling up her legs as well. 

Then there were her wings, beating the air beneath her, showing off their strength. One pair was beneath the other, set a little farther back to allow both pairs to be utilized at once, and while the inner pair was smooth beige webbing and flecked with black on the edges, the outer pair was gorgeous dappled feathers that ranged from almost-white green to black with a few gold feathers scattered over their surface. The most impressive part of her powerful, lithe, body however, was definitely her eyes. 

They were still warm honey despite being cat-like, and looking directly into them, shiro saw that they were filled to the brim with new emotions, wisdom and knowledge. they may as well have been glowing. 

Somehow, through all the awful things that shiro knew that she had been through, pidge’s large round eyes were still bright, intelligent, and so very, inexplicably alive that It knocked the breath out of him all over again. Pidge looked like she was thriving under the bright lights and fearful eyes. until, at least, pidge made eye contact with him. 

the gut wrenching betrayal that consumed her features snapped shiro’s already hurting heart in half. If his lungs were calling for oxygen a second ago, they were screaming for it now. 

She took a step backwards, eyes wide as dinner plates. when the guards came to take her back to her cell, her reaction was immediate and violent. Shiro would do anything to make sure she never had to feel like that again. Spinning around, she slammed her forepaw into the guards, sending most of them flying. 

Whirling back to shiro and keith, pidge glared bloody murder at them, pure hatred seething from her eyes instead of the pain from seconds earlier. Suddenly the phrase “if looks could kill” had a lot more meaning to it... The galrans immediately recognised the blatant fury being directed specifically at shiro and keith. 

The slow recognition crossing their faces was enough to make both paladins’ blood run cold. Their cover had been blown. ‘And by the person we’re here to save, no less.’ crossed shiro’s mind. Seconds later, him and keith were sprinting down the aisle in between the seats towards the arena. \----pidge’s POV---- 

The galrans had already made light of the fact that the black and red paladins were amongst them, and were hot on their trail. The two made it to the front of the seating area that surrounded the actual arena, and were searching for a way out of the stadium. It was set up almost exactly like a football stadium, the only real difference being that the arena was considerably bigger than any on earth, and made of solid metal. Shiro and keith barely made it out of the seating area before the majority of the galrans got to where they had been sitting. 

The two paladins looked ready to sprint towards pidge, but then realised that may not have been the best idea. ‘I must look pretty scary, huh? i’m still covered in blood, aren't I?’ pidge chuckled to herself at the thought of two of the best fighters in team voltron being scared of a tech junkie. Trapped, keith hovered his hand over where he had hidden his bayard, shiro doing the same a second later. Pidge scoffed, the two of them were either way too sure of themselves, or just didn’t want to go down without a fight like true warriors. ‘Knowing them, it’s probably both.’ pidge laughed, feeling the green lion hum in agreement. Until, that is, pidge was hit with the realisation that keith and shiro were surrounded by a mob of furious looking galrans. It was hundreds- thousands maybe- against two. literally. 

‘Oh shit- move!’ pidge mentally cursed herself when she watched a very large and imposing galran step forward, making the rest of the crowd- if a bit reluctantly- step back to give him space with the paladins. It was obvious he was a high ranking officer judging by the scars that riddled his face, and the mechanical parts that covered at least half his body. 

He stepped toward keith and shiro threateningly, and pidge’s already tired brain momentarily short-circuited, leaving her running off pure instinct and adrenaline as She sprinted forward, leapt over the crowd surrounding the two of them, and landed in a defensive stance over her two teammates. 

“You lay a single grubby claw on either of them and i swear to whatever god you believe in i will tear you apart limb from limb here and now!” she snarled at him, forcing crackling energy to seethe from her jaws in a way that she hoped appeared menacing. 

curling her tails protectively around the two people below her, pidge lowered all her wings, trying to reassure herself that they were at least somewhat protected. She had been trying to get back to her space-family for two years, she was not losing two of them the moment they come to her! Pidge’s resolve strengthened as she watched Humor glimmer in the commander’s eyes; 

“i am in shock that you stand with the ones who left you behind, former green paladin.” Pidge recognised that he was mocking her, but shoved the immediate anger away to deal with her current situation. Mostly at least- Her retort was automatic. “and i am in shock that you thought i wouldn't, former commanding officer.” the officer looked taken aback, the humor beginning to fade from his eyes. He responded slowly. “...Former?” 

pidge allowed a sick laugh to bubble from her chest as she answered. “well i'm assuming Zarkon won’t take well to the news that you allowed three paladins of voltron to escape from your grasp...” the galran looked both terrified and furious at the very implication, and took a step forward in what was probably supposed to be a threatening manner. 

‘It probably would be too, if it were two years ago and i wasn’t a massive deadly lion at the moment.’ pidge thought offhandedly, before realizing what the galran was planning to attack the people under her. An awful thought crossed pidge’s mind, one she smashed immediately, mentally burning it and putting it’s ashes in the very bottom of her “things I am pointedly ignoring” box, right next to her memories of the druid surgery. Pidge shuddered at the thought, and pushing all thoughts from her mind, she decided that both herself, shiro and keith had been there far too long.


	11. Giant Mechanical Cats Make The Best Getaway Cars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Impromptu escape plans never go as well as they are planned to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sory it's late, I had some stuff come up. also, I should probably warn you that pidge disassociates during part of this chapter. you have been warned.

Pidge's POV

Flaring her wings, pidge grabbed the backs of Shiro and Keith's cloaks in her mouth and reared onto her back feet, beating her wings against the air beneath them to help her fling her body in a tight circle, jumping over the crowd that had gathered around the paladins. 

Once over them, she sprinted forward until she was far enough away to pause and place her cargo gingerly on her back, folding her leathery inner wings around them protectively before lifting off again. pidge didn’t bother to be careful in her ascent, trying to gain as much momentum as possible as she flew directly at the glass-like ceiling. An abrupt, searing pain in her tail reminded her of her adversaries not ten seconds later though, making her flail in the air trying to right herself. 

Pidge had hit the ground before she knew it- hard. She had flailed continuously on her way down, trying adamantly to land upright so that she didn’t crush the two people on her back. She had been in such a rush that she didn’t have time to conjure a proper landing though, leaving her to land treacherously on her front legs. Her unstable landing had fallen apart immediately, and she had crumpled the moment her body weight came down on her ankles. 

She thought that maybe she had screamed when she hit the ground, and knew there was pretty much a crater around her, but pidge was too busy trying to block out the pain of what had to be broken front legs. the exhaustion was catching up with her- and fast. 

Pidge could feel the hands clutching her back though, she could feel her wings squishing Shiro and Keith ever closer to herself in a futile attempt to protect them despite herself, and knew that she had to get back up. 

Struggling to ignore the not-so-small voice in her mind, calling to her through the overbearing haze and fog, telling her to just go to sleep, to just let them galra take her back to the cells. “Come on Katie- get up…!” a painfully familiar voice cut through the haze, making pidge’s golden eyes snap open once more at the use of her birth name. ‘ Shiro.’ was all she managed to pull together before lurching up to her feet, holding weight on her hind legs and taking in that she was surrounded once again. 

there was too much and too little going on at once, pidge’s mind barely functioning through the adrenaline, pain, blood loss, and fear. It was a stark contrast to the mess of shouting and scrambling going on around her prone form. Pidge was trying to run on empty. 

The last drops of resolve had been scraped from her once she had crashed into the floor. she could hear shiro and keith talking to her. What they were saying, She had no idea, her mind was far too much of a blur to actually translate speech. 

their voices mingled into the shouting, the single somewhat calm voices reminding pidge of the consistently quiet voices of the druids. With that thought, pidge was thrown back into the past two years. blinding Memories flashed through her mind at lightning speed; 

_Surrounded by feral space-wolves, clawing at her and trying to rip her body appart, nothing to help her but a knife and willpower as she curled further into herself-_

Pidge barely had any semblance of coherency as she spun in dizzy circles, snarling at the predators around her. She was blindly snapping and clawing at whatever moved, not really in the present. everything was a blur, making her spin further into her fear. 

_In the druid lab, surrounded by masked druids as they tie her to the floor for another round of quintessence infusion, rendering her essentially dead as white-hot agony tears through her mind and body for minutes on end-_

Pidge could feel their attempts to harm her, knives, swords and fists pounding her legs and stomach, making her body sing louder in its awful melody of pain. Then there were ropes- She had no idea how they got there, but all of a sudden, there were chains wrapping around her ankles, preventing her from trying to running. 

_Strapped to the frigid metal table, right before the druid’s second surgery, cornered, immobile, and spread out stark naked before them with no hope of escape as they completed their experiments-_

Surrounded by the triumphantly grinning galra, pidge lost it. Any and all shreds of coherence fled from her, leaving her with nothing more than instinct, and traumatic memories consuming her vision, reminding her of what would happen if she didn't get out. 

Pidge couldn't feel herself hyperventilating painfully through her multiple broken ribs. White, sub-zero mist fell from her jaws seconds before a frigid stream of steaming-hot dry ice shot from her mouth, accompanied by a nearly silent breathless hiss. Without realizing, she had begun spinning in a circle once more, creating a wall of steaming ice around herself, freezing a good half of the galrans around her in the process. But that only made it worse, the sudden solid white triggering more of pidge’s repressed memories. 

_Fluorescent white lights illuminating only a spotlight in the middle of the arena, glinting off the shiny floor and making the audience of both other prisoners and galrans impossible to see. Chained to the floor, back of her suit open to the air around her, as a guard continually attacked her back with the multi-tailed, barb covered whip, tearing chunks out of her back and thighs-_

Pidge flung her weight upwards, not noticing the screaming of her muscles and the burns she was getting from the dry ice surrounding her, not caring where she was going, as long as it was away. one thought and one goal had consumed her entire mind: ‘get out alive’. Clawing her way over the wall of ice before flinging herself into the air, flying towards the roof with breakneck speed. She heaved another desperate breath and spit a stream of acid directly above her, into the center of the glass ceiling, expecting it to melt under the assault, but hitting it head on instead. 

_An angry guard grabbed her by her face, throwing her at the ground in a fit of rage, pidge lashing out furiously from the pain in attempted retaliation but only managing to make him angrier-_

She snapped and clawed at the air, furiously beating the air with her wings but refusing to release the two paladins on her back. she released another round of burning acid not a second later, this time making a small hole in the thick material, the searing heat of acid on her fur pushing her to scramble to remain in the air. Her entire body was shuddering violently now, as the chains attached to her feet pulled her away from her impromptu escape route. The constricting feeling only served to put gasoline on the fire. 

_Chords pulling her body taut in the darkness of the cylindrical tank, making it difficult to breathe, consciousness fading as her lungs filled with chemicals-_

Pidge retaliated against the galrans on the floor with brutal force, flames spraying from her maw like a whirlwind with incredible force. She didn’t acknowledge their screaming or the scent of burning fur that was suddenly much more prominent. 

Turning back to the ceiling, pidge blasted yet another stream of acid at the clear ceiling, burning a hole barely big enough for her to fit through. She didn’t feel the searing of her feathers, or the blistering 3rd degree burns rippling through her paws, back, and legs. she didn’t wait on the roof for even a second, immediately feeling green nearing the stadium and Launching off the building, flying as fast as her already gravely overworked body would take her towards the presence of her lion. 

She barely made it within fifty feet of her before her wings gave out and she began to transform, leaving green to swoop in and collect all three paladins in her mouth. The last thing pidge registered before allowing herself to lose consciousness for good was the feel of warm arms around her and the feeling of green telling her to sleep. 

keith's POV

    Keith had thought the intel gathering mission would go fine. he and Shiro had gotten into the arena undetected, managed to stay put through the whole show, and had even found pidge like they wanted to. so theoretically, they would be able to get out and plan to break pidge out once they got back to the castle.  

    now, he realized quite how wrong he was. the black and red paladins were cornered between a giant, very angry lion and a few hundred members of the race that wanted them dead. not the best situation, considering how in ten or so minutes Keith and Shiro were supposed to be back in the castle of lions relaying the information they had gathered to the rest of their team to make a plan that would get pidge out of the arena. 

    Keith activated his Bayard, knowing that they would almost assuredly have to fight their way out. nerves scattered themselves through his brain, pidge's fight still fresh in his mind, making him unable to focus, his mind repeatedly returning to wondering if it was even still her, or a broken soldier. Keith was stuck between focusing on how pidge almost seemed to be making it up as she went- just trying to do whatever worked and keep her from dying, and pidge acknowledging- knowing full well the utter brutality that she would repeatedly slip into. 

    it was weird for Keith to watch pidge go from just short of nervous reluctant attacks, to skilled- if a bit reckless series of perfectly streamlined maneuvers. the difference was night and day to him, even if most people probably wouldn't pick up on the changes. he himself had initially assumed them to be pidge getting to know her opponent's strengths and weaknesses. but Keith saw how her old fighting style would return, and pidge would start leaning on dodging and defense, then slip back to the new, decisive, offensive style. it was throwing off both keith, as well as pide's opponents too by the looks of it. 

    Keith was thrown from his thoughts by a growl and a large form landing on top of him and Shiro, hissing out a threat to the galrans surrounding them, making them retreat a few feet in fear. 

    Keith was more than a little bit alarmed when two tails wrapped loosely around himself and Shiro, and pidge's wings drooped to shield the two paladins from the sides. it was strangely safe feeling at the same time though, pidge was  _really_ warm, and Keith could feel the rumbling in her chest as she growled out snappy responses to the commander. it was incredibly relieving to have the reiteration that pidge had kept her sense of humor and sass. 

    that relief was short-lived, however, all but gone once pidge abruptly flared her wings out and grabbed Keith and Shiro's cloaks in her mouth, leaping backward carrying them like human kittens in a split-second maneuver. she darted over to the other side of the arena and all but tossed them onto her back, telling them a short "hold on" as their only warning before she crushed them to her back with her set of leathery wings and jerked into the air. 

the next ten or so minutes was a mess of only half intelligible movement. keith could feel pidge's growing distress through the paladin bond, and when they actually managed to get out, her fear was just short of palpable. then it was once she collapsed in the green lion's mouth passed out cold. where the green lion had come from was a mystery, but judging by how fast it was moving towards the castle of lions, she knew exactly what was happening. 


	12. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Space Fam is back together again! well- sorta. one is pretty much dead, but details, amirite?

Shiro’s POV

Shiro had carried pidge through the castle ship as fast as his legs would take him. the moment green had landed in her bay, he had been out the lion’s mouth and sprinting.

Keith wasn’t far behind. Pidge was bleeding profusely through the dozens of cuts and gashes on her body. they had looked small on her when she had been a giant winged lion, but now they looked lethal altogether. 

Especially the god-awful green, black, and yellow bruising all over her rib cage, arms, and left ankle. Not to mention that she had literally worked herself way past the breaking point to get them all out of the prison in one peice. he could feel through the paladin bond that during the final minutes of their escape, pidge had been barely coherent, passing out right before they got into green. 

Her fear had been palpable, her breathing ragged, her movements jerky and her body shaking violently. She must've squeezed through a hole on the roof at one point, she had almost crushed him and Keith in her rushed escape. The entire situation was so awfully, terribly wrong on so many levels that Shiro's blood may as well have been ice. He had caught glimpses of the last few minutes of the fight, and it had not been pleasant. 

He had seen glimpses of ice, acid, and blood but little more. The thought reminded Shiro that This was pidge that was bleeding out as he rushed her into one of the healing suits to get her into a med-pod. keith seemed to be in a similar state, rushing to help get one of the pods ready to assess and heal the green paladin. 

Even if pidge had grown two or so inches and gained quite a bit of muscle, she was still small compared to the others. especially when She looked so frail; pale from blood loss and completely unconscious. It was strange, as not more than a half an hour prior she had managed to take down three monsters dozens of times her size. 

The rest of the paladins had come down as soon as the green lion had landed, each reacting in their own ways to their first time seeing their green paladin after a week- no- two years separation. Keith looked genuinely shaken, still breathing heavily from the sprint to the med bay from the green lion’s hangar. 

He hid it most of the time, but Keith was incredibly protective of his little makeshift space family, so Shiro could imagine that seeing one of his “siblings” in the amount of pain pidge was in would shake him. shiro had to pause and pry pidge’s hands away from his cloak before he could put her in the pod, his stomach twisting painfully when a tiny whimper that left her throat. 

In a split second decision, Shiro reached over to press a kiss to her forehead and mutter a quiet “I'm so sorry Katie” before backing up to letting the door of the pod seal closed. Resting his head against the glass, Shiro quietly swore to make sure the galrans never laid another hand on any of his family. 

Shiro could hear quiet murmuring behind him, and turning around, he could see the obvious worry and fear everyone’s eyes. They had just gotten pidge back, and she was practically dead. 

The pod was showing that her vitals were just barely still going. If Shiro had been minutes slower getting her into the pod, the green paladin wouldn't have made it at all. 

Lance spoke up first; “she survived two years like that-” he choked out. Hunk looked to be in a similar state of shock, and Coran looked increasingly alarmed the longer read through the collection of information on the tablet in his hands. allura simply looked guilty. 

Shiro glanced towards Keith, who was staring at the pod unseeingly, with a strange, unidentifiable expression on his exhausted features. Coran began muttering to himself, walking to the pod and taping a few buttons before turning to Shiro, “what happened during that fight?” Shiro glanced at the paladins, his gaze lingering on Keith for a moment before finally looking back at coran. “what are her injuries?” something flashed through Coran's eyes when he looked at pidge again- ‘admiration maybe?’ shiro could only guess, it was gone as fast as it appeared. Coran looked back to the list in his hands, took a deep breath, and began. 

The list was in altean, so he had to translate it all, but it was clear that the list was long. coran’s voice wavered for a moment before he began. “She’s got quite the collection here. Worst I’ve seen in a while haha...” he tried to joke, attempting valiantly to lighten the mood before the undoubtedly awful news. ‘It was a good try at least.’ crossed shiro’s mind for a split second before coran began again after a deep breath. 

“She’s got five broken, and three cracked ribs, 3rd degree burns all over her arms, legs, and stomach, her right calf is snapped in half, and her right ankle is twisted pretty badly. there’s a fracture in her spine, tearing in quite a few of her muscles, she’s severely malnourished, dehydrated, and-” coran paused then, his perplexed face prompting an angry “and what?!” from Keith. 

Coran looked at him sharply, his eyes hard and all traces of his usual bubbly self gone. “And there is a severe chemical imbalance in her blood that looks intentional, very aggressive, and preventing the healing pod from doing its job.” he snapped. Shiro froze when the sharp words left coran’s mouth. The image of pidge’s body glowing fierce green, covered in blood and snarling violently crossed his thoughts. Looking at Keith, Shiro could tell that he had thought the exact same thing. 

"...what type of imbalance are we talking about here? is there anything we can do to fix it?" Allura's voice was weak. Coran read through the report again before responding. "I'm fairly certain something triggered her body to begin producing massive amounts of... well, quintessence." Coran seemed genuinely surprised, as did Allura. "it's strange, though. instead of destroying our dear number five's blood vessels and organs like it should have done, to begin with, it seems to have actually been integrated into her bodily systems and has essentially replaced her blood. it's fascinating- I have never seen this sort of response to quite this much quintessence. it might have to do with number five's bond with her lion though, but we can't be too sure about anything." coran finished, regaining his peppy mannerism during his explanation. \---- two weeks later---- Pidge’s POV 

The second pidge had felt the familiarity of green’s cockpit beneath her, a sense of powerful security washed through her, and she allowed her eyes to slip closed to enjoy the sweet numbness that came with sleep. She could vaguely feel herself moving, continually drifting in and out of consciousness, but green was in no distress other than for getting pidge back to the castle of lions, and she could still feel what she assumed to be shiro’s warm embrace around her, so she made no attempt to move until his arms did begin to uncurl from her. 

Pidge mumbled out a whimper as frigid air surrounded her. She clutched something that felt like a shirt, but her hand was gently pried away. She could feel something warm press against her forehead, the action reminding her of her brother and doing leagues for her fears, so she allowed herself to let go of him, swiftly slipping further into the grace of sleep. 

It was a long time before she could feel anything again, but she didn't want to open her eyes, afraid she’d still be in the arena cells, or, worse, the druid lab. 

She shuddered, her entire body shaking from the biting cold surrounding her. She could feel herself falling foreward, but still wouldn't open her eyes, not wanting to have to face the reality of escaping to be nothing more than a dream. 

Pidge simply braced for impact, surprised when she fell into warm arms instead of a cold floor. Her eyes snapped open, looking around frantically for whatever guard was holding her, struggling violently against their hold until she heard Shiro's voice coming from just above her “- wait, wait, calm down, shh, calm down it’s just me- it’s Takashi, can you hear me?" his voice was quiet, if a bit frantic, but it still did wonders for her terrified nerves. "you are in the castle of lions, in the med bay." he continued softly. 

She allowed herself to relax into his gentle hold after a minute, his murmured reassurances like a balm for the blisters in her mind. 

Pidge quickly fell into the most peace and security she had felt since reuniting with the green lion, just sitting and reveling in the sweet warmth that radiated from Shiro as he rocked her back and forth in his arms. Shiro eventually shifted them so that he was leaning against the wall after she had calmed down, sitting criss-cross applesauce with pidge cradled in his lap and his head buried in her messy hair. 

His arms still encircled her, holding her close to him, but not tight enough that she wouldn't be able to get out if she wanted to. Which, as sweet as it was, pidge wanted nothing more than to be as close to him as physically possible- for both the warmth and the comfort of being wrapped up in someone familiar for the first time in what felt like a lifetime of cold, hard, everything. 

She didn’t realize they were crying until she pulled back to look at Shiro's face to make sure that she really wasn't dreaming. There were both dried and fresh tear streaks down his face, dark bags under his eyes, and the most relieved smile that pidge had ever seen on his features. 

Pidge reluctantly released her death grip on Shiro's shirt in favor of wiping the tear-tracks from his cheeks, gently rubbing her hands over his face in the process just to reassure herself that she really was in the castle of lions again, and that Shiro really was there with her, alive and not torn apart by a black hole. 

He returned the gesture, wiping pidge’s own tears away and cradling her face with his warm, calloused hands, whispering a barely audible “welcome back Katie.” with an eye-crinkling smile that would have outshined the sun itself if they had have been back on earth. Pidge smiled right back, burying her face in his neck after a minute and inhaling slowly, wrapping her arms around his neck as he wrapped her up in his own strong arms once more. 

Shiro pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. the familiar, loving gesture making pidge’s breath catch in her lungs, memories of her father and brother flooding back. She had no idea how long they sat like that, just enjoying in each other’s presence, but it didn’t matter. After a while, pidge could feel Shiro's breath even out further and looked up to find him sleeping soundly, with a small smile on his face. ‘Good. he looks like he needs the rest.’ she thought before settling her head in the crook of Shiro's neck once more, allowing the feel of his pulse and the sound of his heartbeat in her ears to lull her into a peaceful sleep as well, drifting into dreamland with a smile etched into her features. 

\----nobody's POV---

Shiro and pidge were completely unaware of that the rest of the team could feel the peace radiating from them through the paladin bond. All of them were drawn to the feeling of peace radiating from the recently tense and uncomfortable med bay. The sight of their leader curled up on the floor with pidge, both sleeping soundly brought smiles to everyone’s faces. 

They all knew that Shiro practically hadn't slept at all since the loss of pidge, and when he had managed to fall asleep, he would be plagued by nightmares. so everyone was quite relieved to see him sleeping soundly, even if it was on the hard floor of the med bay curled up almost protectively around pidge- who they were even more relieved to see was alive and out of the med pod for the first time since getting into the castle. 

When Allura and Coran went looking for the paladins in the abnormally empty castle later, they weren’t surprised to find all of them sleeping soundly on the med bay floor in a paladin pile with pidge in the middle. It was adorable in its own right, a bunch of grown adults all sound asleep in a pile on the floor. Coran and Allura shared a look, gathered some blankets and covered them up to let them get as much rest as possible. \----shiro’s POV---- 

Shiro woke up surprisingly warm. He was used to waking up in a cold sweat after a nightmare, not waking up feeling warm and actually rested. 

Consciousness slowly returned to his mind, the sleepy haze leaving him gradually, finally allowing him to take in his surroundings. The last thing he remembered was pidge coming out of the pod and them sitting on the floor for a while. ‘I must've fallen asleep.’ Shiro went to lift his head, surprised to find that it was resting on Keith's thigh, right above his knee, instead of the floor. 

He was more surprised to find that lance’s head was next to his, dead center of Keith's lap with his face buried in the red paladin's stomach and arms looped around his waist, one of the red paladin’s hands buried in his short hair. Looking to the other side of himself, the black paladin finally registered that pidge was curled up in front of him, her face buried in his chest with one arm draped around his back, and the other holding tightly onto his prosthetic hand, which was doubling as her pillow. Hearing what sounded like a snore, Shiro looked up to see hunk leaning against the med pod that pidge had been in for the past few weeks. 

His snoring was oddly comforting, and the domesticity of the situation made it easy to forget the intergalactic ar they had to fight. A genuine smile made its way onto his face, the whole situation solidifying that this really was his makeshift little space family, and not even Zarkon could take that away from him.


End file.
